Victorian Order of Nurses

The Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) is a non-profit charitable organization founded on January 29, 1897, and based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

While there, she heard many stories of women and children alone in remote areas of Canada as their husbands had to travel great distances for medical help.

At a meeting of the National Council for Women in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she was asked to create an order of visiting nurses in Canada.

In 1898, one of the first high-profile projects for the VON was a call to women to join the Victorian Order of Nurses' Klondike contingent.

They reached Dawson one month after the Sisters of Saint Anne and found their skills desperately needed to care for the many victims of the typhoid epidemic that was raging through the Klondike.

Founder Lady Aberdeen was the first woman to receive an honorary degree in Canada. She is shown here in Queen's University robes, photographed by William James Topley , in May 1897.